Bergeron writes about local, state & national topics, as well as other matters of interest.

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Snooki, Yes; Condoleezza Rice, No!

Three years ago, officials at Rutgers University invited ‘Snooki’ Polizzi of TV’s Jersey Shore to be the guest commencement speaker. The university paid her thirty-two grand for the privilege of watching her put on parade the trivia of her mind on graduation day before an audience of Rutgers’ graduates, their families and friends, and, presumably, prominent intellectuals.

This year, Condoleezza Rice, one of our nation’s foremost African-Americans who rose to prominence as Provost of Stanford University long before she entered government service, was slated to deliver the commencement speech at Rutgers.

Rice became National Security Advisor to George W. Bush, and was subsequently appointed to the post of U.S. Secretary of State. Previously, Rice had served on the National Security Council under George H.W. Bush, where she honed her skills as an expert on the Soviet Union.

This woman is – under any definition of the term – a heavyweight both in academia and in government service. Just as significantly, she is a lady, a genuine person with an intelligence and character of the highest order – rare and remarkable attributes in politics where both gentlemen and ladies are not expected to ply their trade, and where most do not.

After her public service, Rice returned to Stanford as a professor of political science. She is also a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Nonetheless, it appears that she was not good enough for a small band of tenured professors who locked arms with a miniscule band of students. Marching in lock step, both persevered in getting Rice thrown overboard at the last minute – well, not quite:

Rice decided on her own that she did not want to become a cause célèbre at the Rutgers commencement ceremony on May 18. Accordingly, with class and dignity, she prudently withdrew her invitation to speak, despite unwavering support from Rutgers University President Robert Barchi.

Rutgers alumni and alumnae favored her appearance at this month’s graduation exercises by “90 to 95 percent” of the “more than 400,000 alumni whom university officials have polled” according to Barchi.

Oh, and as to those students who helped quash the appearance of Condoleezza Rice: It was reported that last Monday, from 50 to 150 “students occupied the Old Queens administration building in New Brunswick to protest Rice’s speech and demanded to speak to Barchi.”

However, when push came to shove, that band of students caved in, leaving “a few hours later, without speaking to the president, after they were threatened with arrest.”

No guts! In the 1960’s, students would not have moved an inch in their demonstration of civil disobedience, preferring instead to be arrested and hauled away in manacles, rather than give in to the authorities.

I wonder to what extent these latter-day campus protesters understand Henry David Thoreau and the essence of his essay on civil disobedience; or of Mohandas Gandhi; or of Martin Luther King, all of whom fully grasped what civil disobedience entails and what price one pays for it.

Or perhaps these students simply do not have the courage of their convictions. Why take any further risk? After all, there is the problem of jobs to look for when graduation comes – and America finds itself in a very lethargic economy.

Oh, and as to those professors who disingenuously held out an invitation to Condoleezza Rice for her to meet with them in New Jersey in order to discuss their disagreement with her: These hostile professor types have tenure: that privilege provides them with no end of issues behind which they can hide with total impunity.

Thanks for dropping in and reading.

Note: A portion of the data for this post came from the Courier News and The Star-Ledger